In a letter being delivered to the House Appropriations
Committee on Thursday, the lawmakers say spending any money to
close the prison absent any congressional hearings is wrong.

The lawmakers also object to any of the detainees being
transferred to U.S. military bases such as Camp Pendleton north of
Oceanside and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in north San
Diego.

"Our gravest concern with providing this funding is the lack of
a clear and comprehensive strategy for the closure and the
relocation," the lawmakers say in their letter.

"If the administration is serious about closing Guantanamo Bay
without jeopardizing our security, then the administration needs to
work directly with Congress to create a detention process that
keeps detainees off U.S. soil."

Hunter, Issa and Bilbray also have introduced a bill that would
prevent the transfer of any detainees to Camp Pendleton or Miramar
and forbid using federal funds to enhance detention facilities on
those bases to house terror suspects.

In one of his first acts after being sworn into office,
President Barack Obama signed an executive order directing the
closure of Guantanamo within a year and appointing a task force of
officials to develop a plan for the shuttering of the prison and
transferring any remaining detainees.

Guantanamo has generated controversy since the Bush
administration established it shortly after the terror attacks of
9/11. Documents show inmates there were tortured during the Bush
years under authority granted in previously secret memos.

The prison's closure was backed by a group of 16 retired U.S.
generals, including former Marine Gen. David Brahms of Carlsbad,
who said the symbolism of Guantanamo and the activities there sent
a negative message about the U.S. around the world.

Officials at the Defense Department will not comment directly on
the status of the Guantanamo closure plan and have said only that
the department is carrying out the president's directive.

Pentagon officials toured Camp Pendleton and Miramar earlier
this year as the agency developed a list of possible relocation
sites for detainees who aren't returned to their countries of
origin or transferred to the custody of other nations.

Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said Wednesday that the two San
Diego County Marine Corps bases remain on the list of potential
relocation sites.

"It's a problem because it is a distraction to the wartime
training missions at both facilities," Kasper said. "And
Congressman Hunter views it as an insult to the Marines and their
families being housed with the same terrorists they are fighting in
Iraq and Afghanistan."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected those types of
assertions, saying earlier this year that moving terror suspects to
bases would not pose a safety threat or disrupt installation
operations.

In their letter to House appropriators, however, Hunter and the
other lawmakers say there has been no solid case made for closing
Guantanamo and that "bringing detention operations to a grinding
halt will not help us achieve victory any quicker or make the
American people any safer."